Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2 is now generally available

Today AWS announced Cost and Usage data exports in FOCUS 1.2 specification. You can now create exports of your AWS Cost and Usage data in the FOCUS 1.2 schema. FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification), supported by the FinOps Foundation, is an open specification that standardizes Cost and Usage data to simplify cloud financial management across multiple sources. Compared with the FOCUS 1.0 export, FOCUS 1.2 export includes 14 additional columns, enabling invoice reconciliation, capacity reservation tracking, and easier data normalization with SaaS providers reports. With AWS Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2, you can integrate AWS cost data with SaaS provider FOCUS 1.2 datasets and streamline your financial reconciliation processes with the new InvoiceId column.

In this blog post, we discuss the benefits of AWS Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2, key enhancements over FOCUS 1.0, guidance on choosing between FOCUS versions, and our continued involvement in the FOCUS project.

Why should you use AWS Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2?

As more organizations run their workloads on multiple cloud and SaaS providers, managing costs across diverse environments can be time-consuming. AWS Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2 addresses these challenges through three major enhancements:

• Invoice reconciliation capabilities: The new InvoiceId column enables direct correlation between your AWS Cost and Usage data and AWS invoices. Finance teams can eliminate the manual work of matching FOCUS 1.0 line items to individual invoices, reducing monthly close time from days to hours.
• Capacity reservation status tracking: New CapacityReservationId and CapacityReservationStatus columns help you identify and track your On-Demand Capacity Reservations and EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML, providing visibility into whether reserved capacity is used or unused. This enables better capacity reservation management by monitoring utilization from a standardized dataset.
• Virtual currency support enabling SaaS integration: The new pricing currency columns support virtual currency and token concepts used by SaaS providers, enabling them to generate FOCUS 1.2-conformant datasets. You can join AWS FOCUS 1.2 data with SaaS provider-generated FOCUS 1.2 datasets for unified cost reporting across your complete technology stack without complex data normalization.

What are other improvements available in FOCUS 1.2 compared to FOCUS 1.0?

Beyond the major enhancements mentioned above, FOCUS 1.2 supports hourly, daily and monthly time granularity, while FOCUS 1.0 only supported hourly granularity. FOCUS 1.2 also supports commitment discount tracking via the CommitmentDiscountQuantity and CommitmentDiscountUnit columns, as well as SKU metering and property details via the SkuMeter and SkuPriceDetails columns. The specification maintains the standardized four-cost-column structure (ListCost, ContractedCost, BilledCost, and EffectiveCost) while extending capabilities to support more complex FinOps operations across diverse technology stacks.

How do you choose between FOCUS 1.2 and FOCUS 1.0?

FOCUS 1.2 is recommended for all new implementations as it includes all FOCUS 1.0 capabilities plus enhanced features for modern multi-cloud and SaaS environments. However, FOCUS 1.2 is not backwards compatible with FOCUS 1.0 due to breaking changes in the specification. These changes include increased row counts to display used and unused capacity reservations, updated pricing categorization values, and modified nullability requirements for the consumed quantity column. You’ll need to create a new FOCUS 1.2 export and update your data pipelines accordingly.

For customers currently using FOCUS 1.0, we recommend transitioning to FOCUS 1.2 to take advantage of enhanced invoice reconciliation, capacity reservation tracking, and SaaS integration capabilities.

“Since joining the FinOps Foundation in 2023, AWS has been a key player in driving billing data standardization. FOCUS 1.2 allows customers to significantly simplify their cost management efforts for capacity reservations and invoice reconciliation. We’re excited that AWS continues to help their customers receive the benefits of the FOCUS specification through this launch, so customers can more quickly understand their data and focus more on generating actionable insights that drive business outcomes.”

— J.R. Storment, Executive Director, FinOps Foundation

How can you get started with AWS Data Exports for FOCUS 1.2?

Figure 1: Focus 1.2 Data Export

Get started by visiting the AWS Data Exports page in the AWS Billing and Cost Management console and creating an export of the table named “FOCUS with AWS columns” (see Figure 1). A dropdown menu will appear where you can select either FOCUS 1.0 or FOCUS 1.2. Select “FOCUS 1.2” to export FOCUS 1.2 data. Alternatively, you can use the AWS CLI with the bcm-data-exports:CreateExport API to programmatically create FOCUS 1.2 exports.

For customers currently using FOCUS 1.0, we recommend testing FOCUS 1.2 exports in parallel with your existing setup to validate the impact of breaking changes before migrating your production workflows.

How is AWS continuing to support the FOCUS project?

AWS continues to be actively involved in the FOCUS project as a steering committee member and contributor. We contributed to FOCUS 1.2 development by providing input on specification requirements, validating use cases with customers, and ensuring the specification meets real-world multi-cloud financial management needs.

AWS will continue participating in future FOCUS version development, providing feedback and representing customer needs as the specification evolves based on community feedback and emerging requirements in the rapidly changing cloud and SaaS landscape.